Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The Nazca Lines

Starbucks,
what a wonderful place. I took advantage of my last morning in Lima to hit up
the old SBUX, drink some real coffee and post up yesterdays' report. I also
upgraded my Med Jet Assist account up to the "Expatriate" level so that I have
180 days of medevac coverage. The old one was only good for 90 days. After
seeing Justin get smashed and meeting that Australian (Adam) in Cali with two
broken arms and no earthly idea of how he got that way, I figured it would be
the prudent thing to do.

I swung by the moto shop on my way out of town
to get a picture with the managers. Ricardo (on the right), the head manager, is
also the sport bike racing champion of Peru. These guys are really cool and they
went out of their way to help me out, especially with that chain guard that they
cannibalized off of an XRL that they were selling.

As
I walked into the shop, I recognized a KLR in the back that was being worked on.
Ricardo told me that a Canadian who claimed to know me had dropped it off to
have the tires installed and was currently over in the mercado getting
coffee.

I rode my bike over to the mercado and look who I
found:

Kedgi
(on the right, aka Dwight) of "Lobsters to Llamas" fame, whom I had met at new
years eve in Cayumbe. He had met up with a couple of Colombian riders that
morning and was planning on staying in Lima for a few days.

Saying
goodbye to Kedgi and his new Colombian friend, I hit the road. Getting out of
Lima was surprisingly easy and before I knew it I was back on the
coast.

After
a while I stopped at a grocery store to check my oil, grab some batteries, and
check my new chain. As I was checking things over, this guy comes walking out of
the store:

I
was so motivate by his shirt that I gave him an "Errrrr!". He had no idea what
that meant. I'm sure that many of you don't either.....

Like Ecuador,
Peru has nice roads. Like Colombia, moto's don't have to pay tolls. I suppose
this makes it the best of both worlds.

It
took me a while to figure this out, but after some angry hand gestures from the
Peruvian toll booth workers, I eventually learned that moto's just skip around
the right hand side of all toll booths. Interesting.

I stopped for lunch
at a roadside stand today and had chicken tamales:

A
little different than the Mexican version; these come wrapped in Banana leaves
and are a little sweeter. They were delicious and at 5 Soles they were quite
cheap as well.

Continuing on along the Panamerican highway, the scenery
remained very desolate.

There
is a certain beauty and almost a sense of cleanliness to the desert that I
enjoy. At times, being in Peru has made me miss living in the Mojave. The coast
of Peru has been one of the most desolate and sand swept deserts that I've had
the pleasure of traveling through and I think I'll probably miss it. Still, I
have the Atacama and the Salar de Uny to look forward too...

Towards
the end of the day, I arrived on the outskirts of Nazca.

No
one is quite sure who constructed the Nazca lines and they weren't even found
until 1939 when someone was flying over the area to research ancient irrigation
methods. There are various theories about their purpose: UFO landing sights,
giant running tracks, walkways, etc, but I'll spare you the details. Look it up
on Wikipedia.

Apparently, the only way to truly appreciate the Nazca
Lines is to take a plane and fly over them. I didn't really have the time or the
money to do that; however, some of the overlanders in Lima had told me about a
little watch tower right off the Panamerican Highway that you can see a few of
the lines from for 2 Soles.

I
paid my 2 quid and popped up the tower for a quick peak. This is the Frog (or
maybe it's a Hand?):

And
this is the Tree:

There
was supposed to be a third set of lines (a Lizard) visible from the tower, but I
couldn't quite make it out. As I was at the tower, numerous small bush planes
were buzzing about, ferrying tourists over the massive desert scape of enigmatic
figures. Apparently there are a couple hundred different depictions as well as
numerous different geometric shapes and lines. It's supposed to be really cool
from the air. Maybe next time...

Coming back down I chatted with the
vendors at the bottom and bought a Peru sticker from one of the ladies. A young
tour guide was also hanging out down there, so I asked him if he would take my
picture.

After
the leaving the lines I rode the remaining 15 miles into the town of Nazca and
found a Hostel, The Nazca Inn.

After
some negotiation, a bed in one of the dorms is 25 Soles ($10). They let me park
my bike in the lobby, and they have laundry, hot watter, and fast wifi.